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In this paper, I offer a new reading of the so-called Final Ranking which concludes Plato’s Philebus. Specifically, I argue that the principle which organizes the five-tiered ranking is dependence.

Despite recent work on aesthetics in Latin literature (Hardie 2013, Day 2013, Hardie 2009), Statius’ bold experimentation with the sublime remains poorly understood. Statius’ sublime is decidedly ambivalent, careening from the lofty to the absurd in a short space.

Though framed as dialogues between Seneca and his interlocutor, much of Seneca’s Consolations involve Seneca taking on the roles of many other distinct persons, including that of his addressee. In my paper, I will demonstrate how Seneca’s strategy of switching between personae particular to his addressee has a therapeutic effect for both his addressee and himself, with a focus on Ad Helviam and Ad Marciam.

Rome's First Professores

It is well established that the defeat over Carthage in the 2^nd Punic War marks a watershed moment for Roman but also for wider Mediterranean history. Large-scale militarisation, imperial aspirations, a growing network of non-Roman allies and a huge influx of plunder and people are all ramifications of Rome’s ascendancy over the region in the 3^rd and 2^nd cent. BCE.

The Orphic Lithika is, at its simplest, a poetic instruction on the proper use of various stones in medical treatments, amulet use, and propitiating the gods. It is a text deeply focused on its chosen subject matter, to the extent that it lacks the sort of references to contemporary events that often guide us in dating and contextualizing a given work.

Since the important advance of New Historicist approaches to Pindaric studies (Kurke 1991, ch.5; Kurke 1996), little sustained attention has been paid to Pindar’s depictions of women, marriage, and biological reproduction beyond a widespread acknowledgement of the largely negative light in which female exemplars are painted in the odes (e.g. Kyriakou 1994).

Reclaiming a Father: A Psycho-Analytical Interpretation of Neoptolemus’ Fictitious Tale (Ph. 343-90)

Reading Cato’s Origins in Antonine Rome: fact and fiction in Gellius’ Attic Nights

Modes of reading become modes of writing (Barchiesi). In the last two decades, scholars of Greek scholia have brought into clearer focus how ancient critics read Greek poetry, Homer most of all (e.g., Nünlist, Schironi, Kelly et al.). Accordingly, our understanding of how Roman poets metabolized these reading practices in their own writing has increased (Hexter, Farrell), with still more work to be done.